Virée au Royaume du Swaziland

Deux trois mots en français, the rest in English (see below)

Là-bas, le roi règne sur ses sujets, et même si ça peut nous paraître à nous d’un goût moyenâgeux, en Afrique, ça se fait, et j’irais même jusqu’à dire que c’est ce qui se fait de mieux. Le Swaziland, c’est un million deux cent ou trois cent mille habitants, une monarchie absolue, une alphabétisation meilleure que dans beaucoup d’autres pays africains, ce qui n’empêche tout de même pas un chômage très élevé et un taux de contamination par le virus du SIDA vers les 40%. De la pauvreté aussi, c’est-à-dire, les gens sont pauvres mais arrivent à manger à leur faim grâce à de la solidarité, l’agriculture étant la première source de revenu du pays. La monarque est très respecté, même si quelques étudiants ont déjà tenté une revendication pour un système plus démocratique, non suivie et non écoutée. La criminalité swazi doit être aussi importante que dans n’importe quel pays occidental, les transports en commun sont utilisés par la population noire en général mais les touristes les empreintent aussi sans crainte. L’anglais y est généralement parlé, toutefois, dans les villages, le swazi seul est la langue de communication, là où l’anglais n’est pas utile, ou bien en signe de conservation de la culture swazi, comme au village que j’ai eu l’occasion de visiter (voir un peu plus bas). La vie n’est pas chère, la monnaie est le lilangani, égal au rand sud africain.

J’ai utilisé pour la première et probablement dernière fois le Baz Bus pour me rendre là-bas. Je suis partie avec deux US girls (d’Hawaii exactement!!!!!), Zamo, mon chauffeur préféré, était le chauffeur ce jour-là, il m’avait réservé la place à l’avant pour le trajet !! sympa ! Le Baz Bus est vraiment super, tous les chauffeurs sont sympas et helpfull, Zamo nous a tous bien guidés à la frontière ( on est accueilli par le drapeau avec un grand portrait de Mswati III, roi actuel, ambiance super détendue, toute petite frontière, gardes relax, complètement différent du Mozambique où la pagaille générale est stressante). Le Baz Bus est l’occasion de rencontrer des personnes et papoter pendant les longs trajets et trouver sa compagnie du soir puisque tous s’arrêtent dans des mêmes auberges. Les deux Hawaïennes et deux autres Français allaient au même endroit que moi, on a sympathisé du coup tous les cinq.

So I continue in English.
The King of Swaziland has 11 wifes, so many children I don't remember the amount. Everybody can claim belonging to the royal family then...

Twice a year, the whole Kingdom celebrates with the King. First the young girls dance for him and at the end of the day he chooses one for him, then the young boys celebrates their traditional occupation, indeed huntig with traditional clothes and songs... The tourists are very welcome to take part in the celebration, I guess it can be an amazing experience to attend at it.

The 2 French people, the 2 Hawaiians and I staid in Sondzela Backpacker, always recommended by Dave and Bella. Sondzela is in the middle of a nature reserve, where you can experience the wild life by foot : so great!!!! As we arrived by night, we couldn’t see our environment but it smelt, sounded and seemed like we would wake up with the big smile. I was really looking forward to seeing the sunrise.
We went directly to the main camp to see some swazi dance and songs : a bit wired to sit in an armchair with all other white tourists looking at those black guys dancing and singing, but I also felt they enjoyed doing it then it’s fine. Even if the tourists are not here they dance and sing, just maybe not with the flag and the King on the back…
The Euro championship was already on, then Nicolas had to watch it… I sat at the campfire for a few hours with Black Label, nice people from everywhere going or staying everywhere, very nice evening.

I woke up, ah ah ah , ah merde, it’s still night, I can’t see anything…I was so impatient!! A couple of hours later, the sun started shining and the mountain appeared behind my window just on the top of my bed : I let you enjoy the view :


We organized a full visit day together. First the shuttle from Sondzela drove us out of the reserve and we took a minibus to the craft market : impressive!! A hundred shops with the same stuff in each on the same place!! Here is the market for tourists, no authenticity but a lot of things the tourists just love bringing home…so I did some souvenir shopping there. Then we returned to the fruit market and bought plenty of vitamin. Sri and Rasa are vegetarian, they were very pleased to be able to find so nice fruit and veg’. Around midday, after a complicated way back, our receptionist brought us to one of the four villages of the reserve 30 minutes walking distance from Sondzela : here you are, walking, watching zebras, impalas, wild horses, warthogs, … We met then our guide, actually our translator. Indeed the guide was the chief, or the chief’s wife but her husband died a couple of years ago so she is in charge of the village. She speaks swazi that’s why we needed the help of a translator-guide. She welcomed us very warmly with some children who were walking around. Songs, dance. Mama swazi taught us some swazi words : well some, more than 2 and it was over. I do like learning languages, but I can’t remember any words she brought us. We also learnt swazi dance and song : as you can imagine, we were just able to sing the melody, and some tons that sounded familiar to us from time to time, although she repeated the song with us 5 or 6 times…we were kind of bad pupils I must admit. Then she explained us how the swazi hunt, eat, sleep, what the men do, what the women do. She showed us dishes, bedcover, jersey… the dance we learnt was easy, same repeated foot, I think we danced it like for 10 minutes, which was nice because we really got the rhythm and the contact with “our teachers” was very nice after this experience. We felt like we became swazi, so did the chief think. After songs and songs, the children let us go, at least the four of us but didn’t want to let Nicolas. They were playing dancing together following the melody of the chief’s wife. I enjoyed this instant because it was a true instant. Even if Nicolas a tourist was and the children the swazi children were, at this instant, they really had fun together, forgetting who was entertaining who. It was Africa!…

On the way back to the main camp, we stopped at the lake where we hoped we would see some hippos or crocs, but nothing. A bit disappointed, we hurried to the restaurant, it was time to have something to eat : grilled impala for the French, soup for the Hawaiians, poor vegetarian, I feel really sad for them sometimes. The South African love making braai = barbecue. I had a braai last time with some people staying over the week end. It was so nice, huge piece of meat, the men looking after the fire, the women cooking the pop and salads. Anyway, the vegetarians can still taste the salads, but they don’t know what they miss!! Here down the terrace of the restaurant a crocodile was lying : great! After our lunch-diner, we decided to return to the lake thinking we could be lucky this time. And we were : the hippos were lying in the water, even a baby hippo, look at me with my new friends!!!
We had a very good day all together, nice company in this part of the swazi kingdom, awesome….On our way back to the backpacker; just enjoying the view of the mountains behind the fields and the red earth trails.

I spent my second evening with a German guy, playing pool and watching stars without too much light pollution : possible in the reserve, nice nice.
Second morning, I had to go back to Nelspruit, waouh, it hurts… But it was not yet the end of my trip. The problem was, no Baz Bus this day, then : minibus. It is the point : even if it is not safe blablabla, I alone feeling in jail in my nice though Old Vic, I just take the chance when I don’t have an other possibility. Straight to Mbabane (capital ), I should have taken a bus to Nelspruit. But I came too late, he left already. I knew something would go wrong, I mean wrong, just I knew for some reason I would most probably come late at Old Vic, I was supposed to work at 1pm…So then I took a bus to Pigg’s Peak : the highest swazi peak is 1900m high. I really didn’t regret it : beautiful landscape again. In Pigg’s Peack, an other bus drove me to the border where I was supposed to find a bus straight to Nelspruit. In Matsamo at the border, the guards revealed me, there is no straight bus to Nelspruit, I must first go to Schoemansdale, then Malelane, then Nelspruit… aïe, it was not the plan!!! The officer offered me to ask the cars coming crossing the gate/the border and find a lift or me : thank you for your help guy!! So kind of him. The first car he asked : one black girl and a black guy : going to Nelspruit, great!! Ah no not great, they don’t want to take me because I am white… all right! Take it for you and wait……ça fait mal hein…… A car drove me eventually to Malelane where I took the bus to Nelspruit and asked the bus driver to drop me off before the taxi rang at a safest place. Back at 1:45 pm, not as late as I thought finally.

I am very happy to have taken the chance to go to Swaziland. Now : because I don’t stay in Nelspruit any longer, I escape, finally, I leave Tuesday the 24th or Wednesday the 25th to Mozambique, I thought I wouldn’t have the opportunity to get there. I should have gone there and in Drakensberg + Durban in July as Dave and Bella had given me two weeks holidays. I’m still not going to visit the Drakensberg mountain and it is really a pity because I am sure I would have love it. But now I am on my way to Inhambane and I am also quite sure I will love my life there. Lynne assures me I will have a very nice time there with her and the Mozambican style…I can just believe it. à suivre